What would fame feel like? — Kelford Labs Daily

“In 1996, 14 years before Instagram launched, [William Gibson] described in his novel Idoru a future in which ‘it’s easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of the people closest to us.’” — Will Dunn

I was talking to a web developer the other day about his content strategy.

He mentioned a few ideas about blog posts he could write, but then he realized that the only people those particular posts would appeal to would be other web developers.

Maybe it would get some traction on Hacker News (the primary source of news and commentary for the developer community), but it wouldn’t reach his actual prospects, who are not themselves developers.

“And, in fact,” I said, “getting your blog post to #1 on Hacker News would probably ruin your week.”

“Oh wow, you’re right,” he said, “I would hate that.”

Time was, you could say silly things like, “All publicity is good publicity,” but that was before the Internet.

That was before the Internet was the way it is today.

Now, some types of attention are fully, irredeemably, bad.

And for someone like this web developer, having his blog post picked apart and commented on by thousands of hypercritical software developers would actually hurt, not help.

For lots of business owners, unrestricted fame would be bad, actually. It would be distracting and damaging to what they’re trying to do:

Reach clients and achieve some Minimum Viable Popularity so that the people who should know about them do. So the people they want to work with can find them, instead of trying to be all things to everybody, all at once.

So they can be successful on their own terms, not bound by the whims of Internet commentary or TikTok virality.

So, with that web developer, in classic Joel style, I asked him a ton of questions. About what his clients wanted to be true, and how his content could demonstrate to them that he can make it true. Instead of trying to impress other developers.

We came up with a content angle that’s interesting to him, but also exactly what his ideal clients would be looking for when vetting a developer.

And it wouldn’t require millions of views to work but mere thousands, maybe hundreds.

Because I think there’s another way to get customers that doesn’t require the Eye-of-Sauron-like attention that the Internet can give when it’s at its worst.

I think you can connect with your ideal audience without needing to be seen by everyone else on the planet.

And I think that that’s better for a certain type of business owner. The ones that are focused on their work and their ability to help the people who value them most.

Think about this: Is there a level of fame or attention or scrutiny that would make your day worse? That would make your business harder to run successfully? Is there an equivalent to the ‘Hacker News Nightmare’ for you?

I think the answer for many business owners is yes.

So why chase something you don’t really want?

Why not create connection with your ideal clients instead?

Reply to this email to tell me what you think, or ask any questions!

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